Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment: A Seth Book (Volumes One and Two)

«Science has unfortunately bound up the minds of its own even most original thinkers, for they dare not stray from certain scientific principles.» — Seth, según Roberts, en el primero de los cuatro epígrafes que abren el volumen, fechado en una sesión privada del 12 de julio de 1979: sostiene que la ciencia ata la mente de sus pensadores más originales porque no se atreven a apartarse de ciertos principios.

«All energy contains consciousness (underlined). That one sentence is basically scientific heresy, and in many circles it is religious heresy as well. A recognition of that simple statement would indeed change your world.» — Seth, según Roberts, enuncia la frase que él mismo llama herejía científica y religiosa, con la acotación tipográfica *(underlined)* que Butts conserva del subrayado de la voz; el epígrafe se reimprime en la p. 102 y se ancla aquí en la primera aparición

«I feel sometimes as if I am expected to justify life's conditions, when of course they do not need any such justification.» — Seth, según Roberts, en el epígrafe de la sesión 896 del 16 de enero de 1980: niega que las condiciones de la vida necesiten justificación alguna; el pasaje vuelve en la p. 213 y se ancla aquí en la primera aparición

«. . . basically, consciousness has nothing to do with size. If that were the case, it would take more than a world-sized globe to contain the consciousness of simply one cell» — Seth, según Roberts, en el epígrafe de la sesión 917 del 21 de mayo de 1980: desliga la consciencia del tamaño y mide la de una sola célula por encima de un globo del tamaño del mundo; los puntos suspensivos son del propio epígrafe, que arranca a media frase

«It is a gift, a boon, an exquisite pleasure, to become physically alive on your functioning planet, couched securely within your dusk and dawn, your existence supported by the seasons and by an overall operation of spontaneous order.» — Seth, según Roberts, en el cuarto epígrafe: llama don y placer exquisito al hecho de estar vivo físicamente, y liga esa vida a las estaciones y a un orden espontáneo general

«On Friday, October 23, 1981, I received the following message from Seth: 'Attend to what is directly before you. You have no responsibility to save the world or find the solutions to all problems—but to attend to your particular personal corner of the universe. As each person does that, the world saves itself.» — Jane Roberts fecha el mensaje que recibió de Seth y lo cierra con la consecuencia que él saca: si cada quien atiende su rincón, el mundo se salva solo. Es la voz de Roberts citando la de Seth dentro de su comentario

«After writing the above poem I felt a sense of faith—and realized that like many I'd become afraid of faith itself. It was a fear hidden in my deepest aspects.» — Jane Roberts, en primera persona, declara haberle tenido miedo a la fe misma y sitúa ese miedo en sus aspectos más profundos; los puntos suspensivos son del propio texto

«The facts are, though, that Jane's already impaired physical condition grew steadily worse while she was working on the book.» — Robert F. Butts abre sus ensayos consignando que la condición física ya dañada de su mujer empeoró mientras trabajaba en el libro

«We could have presented Dreams as is, or at least have avoided mentioning certain less-than-advantageous circumstances surrounding its production by Jane and by Seth» — Butts declara la alternativa editorial que descartaron: presentar el libro sin más y callar las circunstancias poco ventajosas de su producción

«Since we've always wanted to make sure that our "psychic work" is given within the context of our daily living, I've undertaken to present in these essays intensely personal material relevant to the creation of Dreams.» — Butts da la razón de que lo íntimo entre en el libro: que el trabajo psíquico de los dos se dé siempre dentro del contexto de su vida diaria

«Many of the events and feelings evoked such deep implications of trial and challenge for Jane and me that we were often left with strong feelings of unreality: This can't be happening to us.» — Butts describe el sentimiento de irrealidad que los acompañó, y lo cita en la frase misma que se decían

«That basic impetus toward survival came to take precedence over everything else.» — Butts sitúa el impulso de supervivencia por encima de todo lo demás en aquellas semanas

«Indeed, for several weeks following the initiation of the challenges I relate in the essays, supposedly creative activities like writing books and painting pictures often faded into insignificance by comparison.» — Butts consigna que escribir libros y pintar cuadros perdieron peso frente a lo que estaba pasando

«"You make your own reality," Seth has told us innumerable times.» — Butts cita la fórmula que, según él, Seth les ha repetido innumerables veces; las comillas dobles son del propio volumen y encierran el dictado dentro de la prosa de Butts

«We agree —and that is where Jane and I diverge most sharply from the conventional establishment belief that events happen to people, instead of being created by them.» — Butts declara el punto en que los dos se apartan de la creencia establecida: que los acontecimientos le ocurren a la gente en vez de ser creados por ella

«Our lives have been irrevocably changed—by choice—and not for the worse, either.» — Butts sostiene que el cambio de sus vidas fue por elección y niega que haya sido para peor

«Some childlike and naive, yet deeply stubborn portion of her psyche, some "perverse area," as Seth, her trance personality, jokingly characterized it long ago, had simply taken over and decided not to do any more on that subject.» — Butts atribuye la negativa de su mujer a traducir la canción sumari a una porción infantil y testaruda de su psique, y recoge el término con que Seth la había caracterizado años antes, *perverse area*

«Lest I give an inaccurate picture of my wife, however, let me add that she combines instances of that seeming intransigence with a profound intuitive innocence before nature (and thus All That Is), and with a great literal acceptance of nature's manifestations and of her own being and creations within that framework.» — Butts describe a Roberts como quien junta esa intransigencia con una inocencia intuitiva ante la naturaleza —y por eso ante Todo Lo Que Es— y con una aceptación literal de las manifestaciones naturales

«Although she's not entirely in agreement with me on this point, I think that essentially Jane is a mystic —not an easy thing to be in our extroverted, materialistic society, for it represents a way of life that's little understood these days.» — Butts declara a su mujer mística y consigna en la misma frase que ella no está del todo de acuerdo con él en ese punto; el desacuerdo queda dicho, no resuelto

«Mysticism is still overwhelmingly regarded as a profoundly religious expression, and one that's hardly practical, but in my opinion neither of those situations applies to Jane.» — Butts objeta las dos cosas que, según él, se dan por supuestas del misticismo —que es expresión religiosa y que es poco práctico— y niega que ninguna de las dos valga para Roberts

«Her "mystical way" is reinforced by a strongly secretive characteristic that's usually belied by her seemingly outgoing character and behavior.» — Butts añade un rasgo secretivo fuerte bajo el carácter exteriormente abierto de su mujer

«There's nothing halfway about Jane. She's intensely loyal. She's a very perceptive person with many abilities, a fine intelligence, and an excellent critical sense.» — Butts enumera los atributos que le reconoce: lealtad intensa, percepción, inteligencia fina y sentido crítico

«I don't think she'd be able to express the Seth material as she does without them.» — Butts liga la expresión del material de Seth a esos atributos: sin ellos, sostiene, ella no podría darlo como lo da

«Seth uses the term "value fulfillment," as in the title of this book, to imply life's greater values and characteristics—that is, we are alive not only to continue, to insure life's existence, but to add to the very quality of life itself.» — Jane Roberts, dictando su propio material introductorio y no en trance, acota el término del título: estar vivos no solo para continuar sino para añadir a la calidad misma de la vida

«We do not just receive the torch of life and pass it on as one Olympic runner does to another, but we each add to that living torch or flame a power, a meaning, a quality that is uniquely our own.» — Roberts, en el mismo dictado, opone su imagen a la del relevo olímpico: cada quien añade a la antorcha un poder y un sentido propios, como individuo y como miembro de la familia, la comunidad y la especie

«In Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment Seth outlines the great cosmic and private energies that in our terms once brought into existence the reality of the universe and the birth of those private, cohesive realities in which our own individual daily lives are couched.» — Roberts resume lo que el libro atribuye a Seth: las energías cósmicas y privadas que trajeron a la existencia el universo y el nacimiento de las realidades privadas en que transcurre la vida diaria

«It is impossible in our time scheme to intellectually know our own potentials without trying them out, without testing them against the world's edges.» — Roberts sostiene que en el esquema temporal humano no se conocen los propios potenciales sin probarlos contra los bordes del mundo

«We must activate our impulses and desires, try out our abilities, seek out our strengths by joyfully advancing into the given world of physical energy, physical time and space. In the development of each individual we act and reenact the startling events that brought our own universe into existence.» — Roberts pide activar impulsos y deseos y probar las propias capacidades, y hace de cada desarrollo individual una reactuación de los acontecimientos que trajeron el universo a la existencia

«The universe was not created in some dim past, but is newly recreated by our own thoughts, dreams, and desires—so that reality happens at all possible levels at once. And in that living endeavor we each play our part.» — Roberts niega que el universo se creara en un pasado remoto y lo declara recreado de nuevo por los pensamientos, los sueños y los deseos de cada quien, con la realidad ocurriendo a todos los niveles posibles a la vez

«When we hesitate, hold back, falter, when we hold back energy in the hopes of saving it, when we allow fear rather than trust to guide our activities, when the quality of our lives becomes less than we know it should be—then warnings flash.» — Roberts enumera las condiciones en que, según ella, aparecen los avisos: vacilar, retener energía por ahorrarla y dejar que el miedo y no la confianza guíe la actividad

«As I write this Introduction I am recovering from a group of illnesses, recuperating from a month's stay in the hospital, and now I'm trying to see where my personal situation fits into Seth's larger views. That is, the individual is not just a side issue in what people usually call the evolutionary process—but he or she is the entire issue, without which there would be no species, no survival, no exquisite web of genetic cooperation to produce living creatures of any kind whatsoever.» — Roberts sitúa su propia enfermedad dentro de la tesis del libro y niega que el individuo sea un asunto lateral del proceso que suele llamarse evolutivo: sostiene que es el asunto entero

«In our other books I'd mentioned my physical symptoms now and then. By the time Seth finished dictating Dreams last month (on February 8), however, my physical condition had deteriorated.» — Roberts fecha el fin del dictado del libro —el 8 de febrero— por el deterioro de su propia condición física; la fecha va entre paréntesis en el original

«Yet there was, I knew, a fellowship even in those processes—one that I had perhaps too long ignored: the quality of fellowship, as a species or a family or a community comes together to help one of its own kind.» — Roberts saca de la humillación hospitalaria lo que llama camaradería de la especie, la familia o la comunidad que se junta a ayudar a uno de los suyos

«And as I was to see, even for all of the pessimistic suggestions of medical science itself, in the very middle of crisis there was a certain indisputable sense of cooperation— a "vulgar" physical optimism, and a kind of humor that I had long forgotten existed.» — Roberts opone a las sugestiones pesimistas de la ciencia médica un sentido indisputable de cooperación y un optimismo físico que llama *vulgar*, con las comillas del propio texto

«I had a right to be on earth because I'd been born here like every other physical creature, and on that level alone I was part of a great framework of physical energy and cooperation.» — Roberts funda su derecho a estar en la tierra en haber nacido aquí como cualquier criatura física, y en ese solo nivel se cuenta parte de un marco de energía y cooperación

«In later years it's become impossible for me to close my eyes to the multiple pressing differences that exist between Seth's explanation of the nature of reality, and of our own private experience of it.» — Roberts, en el segundo ensayo, declara que ya no puede cerrar los ojos a las diferencias entre la explicación de la realidad que da Seth y la experiencia privada de los dos

«In this book, Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, for example, Seth portrays us as a vibrant,» — Roberts resume el retrato que el libro hace de la especie y corta antes del compuesto *well-intended*, que el troceo parte en el salto de renglón y `span()` fundiría en palabra inexistente

«Yet, I read all of those dire newspaper stories predicting disaster, and (oh yes, dear readers) I watched the daily» — Roberts pone enfrente los periódicos que anuncian desastre y las noticias trágicas de la televisión; el verbatim corta antes del compuesto *tragic-news*, partido por el salto de renglón

«rather than gaining potential energy and desire, then danger signals appear everywhere. They show up as wars and social disorders on» — Roberts, dictando su propio material, liga el descenso de energía y de deseo a señales de peligro que aparecen por todas partes, empezando por las guerras y los desórdenes sociales; el tramo se corta en el límite de troceo y sigue en la línea siguiente

«national scales, and as household crises, as illnesses (pause), as calamities on personal levels as well.» — continuación del tramo anterior, en la misma plana: Roberts baja la misma señal a la escala doméstica —las crisis de casa, las enfermedades, las calamidades personales—. La acotación *(pause)* la anota Butts durante el dictado

«This book is dedicated to my husband, Robert F. Butts, for his love and devotion.» — la dedicatoria de Jane Roberts a su marido, en la plana que precede al índice del tomo 1

«Contents Quotations from Seth 9 A Poem and Commentary by Jane Roberts 11 Introductory Essays by Robert F. Butts 13 Preface by Seth 95 Chapter 1 Before the Beginning 119 Chapter 2 In the Beginning 137 Chapter 3 Sleepwalkers. The World in Early Trance. The Awakening of the Species 166 Chapter 4 The Ancient Dreamers 192 Chapter 5 The "Garden of Eden." Man "Loses" His Dream Body and Gains a "Soul" 224 Chapter 6 Genetic Heritage and Reincarnational Predilections 259 Index 286» — el índice del tomo 1, que da la arquitectura del volumen —epígrafes, poema, ensayos de Butts, prefacio de Seth, seis capítulos e índice analítico— con las páginas impresas, no con las planas

«(A note by R.F.B.: The following quotations are from sessions Jane delivered for her trance personality, Seth, just before and during the time she worked with him on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. One is from a private session, two are from "nonbook" regular sessions, and one is from Dreams itself.)» — la cabecera con que Robert F. Butts presenta los cuatro epígrafes y declara su procedencia: una sesión privada, dos sesiones regulares que él rotula *nonbook* y una del propio libro. Firma con sus iniciales, R.F.B.

«(Jane experienced many painful physical and psychological delays while producing Dreams. Finally, she had only six sessions to go for the book when she came through with this material for herself:)» — la acotación de Butts al poema de Roberts, entre paréntesis como todas las suyas: sitúa el poema a seis sesiones del final del libro

«Originally I'd planned to write the standard kind of introduction for Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. However, as I became involved in describing the complicated, emotionally charged series of events surrounding the hospitalization earlier this year of my wife, Jane Roberts, the material automatically began organizing itself into a series of dated essays.» — Butts declara el cambio de plan que dio forma al aparato introductorio: de una introducción común a una serie de ensayos fechados

«I was more than happy to follow this intuition from my creative self, for it answered many questions I'd started to consciously worry about.» — Butts atribuye la forma del aparato a una intuición de su yo creativo

«obviously impossible to write all of the material for any piece on the date given.» — Butts advierte que las fechas de sus ensayos no son las de redacción de todo su contenido

«The essays could have easily grown into a book of their own.» — Butts mide lo que dejó fuera: los ensayos podían haber crecido hasta ser un libro aparte

«This weaving things together to make them "fit" is only natural for one of my temperament,» — Butts nombra su propio procedimiento de composición y lo atribuye a su temperamento

«I didn't alter any of my original copy—that I'd have refused to do—and I kept intact those first spontaneous descriptions» — Butts declara el límite que se puso al rehacer los ensayos: no alterar el original, y conservar intactas las primeras descripciones espontáneas

«I did not look at Seth-Jane's Dreams itself while writing the essays, in order to avoid having them overly influenced by work in the book.» — Butts declara que no miró el libro mientras escribía los ensayos, para que no lo influyeran; el compuesto *Seth-Jane* es del propio texto

«Instead, we want all of this preliminary material to show how we live daily—regardless of how well we may or may not do —with a generalized knowledge of, and belief in, the Seth material.» — Butts fija la función del material preliminar: mostrar cómo viven a diario con el material de Seth, bien o mal

«Seth, then, has finished his work on Dreams.» — Butts consigna el fin del dictado y abre con eso el trabajo que le queda a él

«I wrote the original version of the notes for each book session as he delivered it through Jane,» — Butts describe el procedimiento de las notas: escribía la versión original de cada sesión mientras se entregaba por Jane

«Since I've completed the essays, all I have to do now is "refine" the session notes (and addenda) as I type the finished manuscript.» — Butts enumera lo que le queda: refinar las notas de sesión y los addenda al mecanografiar el manuscrito final

«Jane appreciates that the dates I'm always giving merely furnish a convenient framework for our material, but she's hardly enamored of such precise methodology; she understands that it's my way of doing things, realizes it's very useful, and goes on from there.» — Butts consigna el desacuerdo doméstico sobre su método de fechar: Jane lo reconoce útil y no lo comparte

«It has the great attribute of allowing for quick reference timewise (if not always by subject matter) to any of the more than 1,500 regular, private or deleted, and "ESP class" sessions Jane has given over the past 19 years—until July 1982, that is, when I began work on these passages.» — Butts mide el archivo entero de sesiones que su método permite consultar: más de 1 500 sesiones regulares, privadas o borradas y de clase de percepción extrasensorial, en diecinueve años hasta julio de 1982

«Moreover, the choice of presenting the material in essay form proved to have one virtue that was more valuable than all the others combined:» — Butts declara la virtud que atribuye a la forma de ensayo por encima de las demás

«It allowed us to delve into the events I describe, and "our deep-seated, sometimes wrenching feelings connected to them," a little bit at a time.» — Butts completa la virtud: la forma de ensayo permitió entrar poco a poco en los acontecimientos y en los sentimientos que traían

«I knew at once that the tape's contents were so revealing of her feelings about her illness, so disturbing and frightening, that she couldn't bring herself to explore those deep emotions at that time.» — Butts explica por qué no hubo traducción de la canción: el contenido de la cinta le resultaba a su mujer demasiado revelador para explorarlo entonces

«I decided to write around that one great line as best I could.» — Butts declara su salida de oficio ante la negativa: escribir alrededor de la línea que no consiguió traducida

«She spent 31 days there, being treated for a severely underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism), protruding eyes and double vision, an almost total hearing loss, a slight anemia, and budding bedsores, or decubitus ulcers.» — Butts inventaría el diagnóstico hospitalario de su mujer: tiroides muy poco activa, ojos salientes y visión doble, pérdida casi total de la audición, anemia leve y escaras

«I should note, by the way, that her bedsores weren't infected when she went into the hospital, but were less than a week later.» — Butts consigna que las escaras no estaban infectadas al ingresar y sí una semana después

«Because of her much-reduced thyroid activity, Jane often dozes or even sleeps in her chair.» — Butts atribuye el adormecimiento continuo de su mujer a la tiroides

«Jane never reached her goal, however. Instead she napped or drifted—even as she does now— while intermittently reading and rereading our material for Dreams without ever doing anything with it.» — Butts consigna que su mujer no llegó a revisar las sesiones ni las notas del libro

«Our agreement was that in the meantime she was to start checking the sessions and my notes for Dreams; then I was to type the final manuscript.» — Butts declara el reparto acordado para cerrar el libro: ella revisaba las sesiones y las notas y él mecanografiaba el manuscrito final

«This was to be a new experience for us: Because of the arthritis she was having trouble even holding a pen, so she intended to dictate her material as though she were writing it herself in longhand.» — Butts describe el procedimiento nuevo del material introductorio de Roberts: por la artritis, ella dictaba como si escribiera a mano

«This wasn't to be Seth speaking. For Jane's own work, however, I note times, occasional pauses, and any other information in italics, just as I do for Seth's dictation.» — Butts declara la distinción tipográfica que decide la voz en estas planas: no es Seth quien habla, y aun así las horas, las pausas y las acotaciones van en cursiva igual que en el dictado de Seth

«Jane hadn't dictated this material while in a trance or a dissociated state, as she does when producing her Seth material. She hadn't felt particularly inspired, nor at all sure how to proceed. It was just that she's always used longhand or a typewriter for her own work, she said, and never dictated it, as many writers do these days. Just the same, her creative abilities had immediately come to her aid.» — Butts deja por escrito que ese material de Roberts NO se dictó en trance ni en estado disociado, a diferencia del material de Seth: es la nota que separa las dos voces de estas planas

«This is a good place to explain that while Jane was in the hospital neither of us ever made any attempt to "convert" the people there—doctors, nurses, technicians, say—to a belief in the Seth material. Beyond saying that Jane was a writer and that I was an artist, we told no one of our interests in life. We weren't there to impose our beliefs upon anyone else.» — Butts declara que en el hospital no intentaron convertir a nadie al material de Seth y que se presentaron solo como escritora y pintor

«We'd made the conscious, joint decision during a time of crisis to seek certain kinds of help from skilled practitioners in the medical field, and we were willing to learn from them, even if those people were pretty certain to have belief systems very different from ours.» — Butts consigna la decisión conjunta de buscar ayuda médica sabiendo que los sistemas de creencias de quienes la darían serían muy distintos de los suyos

«Jane and I didn't know whether the doctors we did business with even knew what a trance state was.» — Butts consigna que no sabían si los médicos siquiera sabían qué es un estado de trance, y sigue con la escena imaginada de Seth explicándose ante un auditorio médico

«Joking aside, though, after her month in the hospital Jane and I ended up with a collection of medical experiences that were mixed at best— positive and negative—and most expensive indeed.» — Butts cierra el primer ensayo midiendo la experiencia médica: mixta en el mejor de los casos y muy cara

«(7:15 P.M. Our next "Jane session" took place four days later, on the date shown above. Once again we sat at the card table in the living room. And once again Jane wavered at times between waking and dozing. When she did begin dictation, though, her pace was good.)» — Butts abre el segundo ensayo, del 5 de abril de 1982, con la acotación de hora y de estado que acompaña a cada sesión de Roberts

«(8:02 P.M. "Oh, that's all," Jane suddenly said. Her delivery this evening had been as fast as that of last time, yet more subdued. Her voiced had carried the same tremor. She was tired, and I was far from being at my best as I fought off a half-repressed cough—an affliction that seldom troubles me.)» — la acotación con que Butts cierra la sesión: ritmo, temblor de la voz y su propia tos, dentro del paréntesis que en este volumen marca siempre su voz

«"The toughest week of our twenty-seven years together," I told a neighbor last night.» — Butts cita su propia frase a un vecino y fecha con ella los veintisiete años de matrimonio

«Jane herself was displaying a stoicism (I'm afraid to write "acceptance") regarding her condition» — Butts describe la actitud de su mujer y enmienda en el acto la palabra: escribe estoicismo y declara entre paréntesis que teme escribir aceptación

«That had been shortly after we married, in 1954. We were living in Sayre, Pennsylvania, a middle-class railroad town in which I'd grown up, which lies only 18 miles southeast of our present home in Elmira, New York.» — Butts fecha el matrimonio en 1954 y sitúa los dos pueblos, Sayre en Pensilvania y Elmira en Nueva York

«For now I understood that freedom of motion was at least one true reflection of an individual's creative potential.» — Butts liga la libertad de movimiento al potencial creativo del individuo

«To our dismay, we discovered that Jane had lost much of the use of her legs while in the hospital, since during that month she'd been actively discouraged from using them in her accustomed way.» — Butts consigna que su mujer perdió buena parte del uso de las piernas en el hospital porque ahí se la disuadió de usarlas como acostumbraba